Various types of cursor control or pointing device systems for computer are in common use today. They include the mouse, trackball, touchpad, touchscreen, joystick, pointing stick and others, and are found on almost all desktop and laptop or notebook computers, and on some personal digital assistants, game consoles and other devices where a cursor on a display screen must be manually controlled by one or more fingers of a user. The pointing device may be either external to the keyboard, as in a traditional mouse, or built-in to the keyboard console, as in many laptop computers.
Several different functions normally must be performed by the pointing device system. Not only must the cursor be moved around the screen, but also objects such as hyperlinks on a Web page or local program icons on the screen must often be selected or activated. This of course is traditionally accomplished on a regular mouse by cursor select or “mouse click” button(s).
Today, most personal computers have two “click buttons” located either on the mouse itself or mounted on or near the keyboard console. The “left click” button normally activates the cursor-selected object (e.g., causes the computer to “jump” to a new screen such as through a hyperlink, or causes a program to be activated or “launched”), and the “right click” button normally is available for determining “properties” or other optional information about the screen object, such as file location or size, or for performing specialized functions. Also, increasingly, more than two “click buttons” are often being provided to offer greater control over more sophisticated tasks such as photo or video editing.
Traditional pointing devices and click buttons have some disadvantages. Consider, for example, the touch pad or track pad device found on many notebook computers. A typical prior art touchpad arrangement is shown in FIG. 1. Here, laptop computer keyboard 10 has a plurality of text typing keys 20, a touchpad 30, a left click button 40 and a right click button 50. The touchpad is typically located a short distance below the bottom row of keys (toward the user), and the click buttons are typically placed immediately below the touchpad.
In normal operation, the user is expected to use his or her index finger for the touchpad and the thumb of the same hand for the click buttons. For example, for a right-handed user, the user drags his or her right index finger over the surface of the touchpad to move the cursor around the screen. Capacitive or other touch-sensing electronics associated with the touchpad convert the finger movement into cursor control signals that are interpreted through graphics processors or display processors, and the operating system, to control the visible cursor on the screen.
Optical sensing is also sometimes used for some touch screens. When the cursor has reached its intended “target”, such as over a live link or icon desired to be activated, the cursor is halted and the right-handed user (for example) pushes the left click button with the right thumb. The left hand normally is not doing anything at this time.
Unlike a regular desktop mouse, however, it is difficult for some users to push the left or right click buttons with the thumb while the index finger of the same hand remains on or just above the touchpad. For example, when the index finger is placed on the bottom-left corner of the touchpad 30 of FIG. 1, it is difficult to push the left click button 40 by the thumb. It is also difficult, for the same reason, to use the touchpad to “drag” files into “folders” or other areas on the screen. Furthermore, it has been found that users (right-handed users in this case) almost always feel uncomfortable when they push the right click button 50 by the thumb while the index finger remains on the touchpad 30. The uncomfortableness is exacerbated if the user has large fingers or finger dexterity is limited in some way.
A different arrangement is available on some notebook or laptop computers. For example, some notebook computers have a small joystick or pointing stick located approximately in the center of the keyboard and nestled among the keys. Some users feel comfortable with this arrangement because of a different cursor control feeling or because the user may not need to move his or her hands from the home position on the keyboard. But the basic operation of the click buttons in this arrangement is the same as with the traditional touchpad. Although the click buttons are not immediately adjacent to the pointing device, they are still in the same position relative to the user. In other words, in this arrangement, the click buttons are normally located below the bottom row of typing keys (toward the user) to allow for operation by the thumb of the same hand that is operating the pointing device. In this arrangement, it is still uncomfortable for many users to press the left or right click button by the thumb.
It has been discovered that the above-mentioned difficulties and uncomfortable feelings arise in large part from the relative positions of the touchpad and click buttons found on many traditional notebook computers. As mentioned previously, the click buttons are normally located immediately below, or even touching, the touchpad. Thus, the thumb must be brought very close to, or in contact with, the index finger when a click button must be pressed.
It has also been discovered that this uncomfortableness is also due to the clicking motion of the thumb itself. Because of the relative positions of the pointing device (such as the touchpad or joystick) and the click buttons, the user normally must use the radial (lateral) side of the thumb, even if the click buttons are located some distance away from the pointing device. But in this arrangement, the clicking motion is not performed using the normal kinetics of the thumb. It may cause some uncomfortableness, dullness, pain or joint member degeneration over time.
Another challenge for modern cursor control devices is that notebook (or laptop or portable) computers are becoming more powerful every year. This means that more and more users are increasingly using notebook computers for heavy, complex tasks such as photo-editing, 3-D modeling, CAD/CAM computer animations or scientific calculations. These heavy tasks increasingly require the use of a multi-button mouse or other pointing device having more than two click buttons, which may have “window scroll” buttons, to scroll contents of a window, and/or “page up/down” buttons, to move pages back and forward. Since most notebook computers with built-in pointing devices currently have only two click buttons, many users of these heavy tasks must carry around an external pointing device such as a multi-button mouse with their notebook computers, which is burdensome for the mobile user.
Various specialized cursor control devices have been proposed in the prior art. See, for example, the following U.S. Patents: Sellers U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,334; Kocis et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,614; Lee U.S. Pat. No. 6,181,325; and Derocher et al. 5,914,702. However, these prior art devices typically require unusual finger movements, extra keyboard keys, unusual click button shapes or expensive additional hardware such as cameras to accomplish cursor control and click button activation, and they do not in any event completely solve the problems mentioned above.
Thus, in light of the above-mentioned difficulties and challenges in the prior art, a need exists for a computer keyboard with a cursor control device to improve cursor functionality and user comfort while “clicking”, and to avoid the need for an external multi-button mouse or other pointing device.